The Act of Union (1840)

The political structure under the Act of Union of 1840

Comparing the organizational charts of 1791 and 1840

• Lord Durham, a few months after the end of the rebellions of 1837–1838, submitted a report in which he stated his belief that the implementation of measures aimed at assimilating the Canadiens would put an end to conflicts in the colony. Following Durham’s recommendations, London adopted the Act of Union, a constitution that united Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a new colony: the Province of Canada.
• Although the population of Lower Canada was greater than that of Upper Canada, London granted equal political representation to both regions, with each region having 42 members. This situation placed French Canadians in the minority in the Legislative Assembly, since some of the members of Lower Canada were Anglophone.
• London merged the debts of the two Canadas, even though the debt of Upper Canada was much greater than that of Lower Canada.
• English became the only official language in the Province of Canada.
• The governor and the members of the Legislative Council retained the power to block bills adopted by the Legislative Assembly. The governor and the members of the executive and legislative councils were still appointed by the British authorities, which meant that the mother country maintained control over its colony.

The Reformers and the demand for responsible government

• Following the Act of Union, politicians from the Province of Canada divided into two groups: the Reformers and the Conservatives.
• In 1841, the Reform members of Upper Canada, led by Robert Baldwin, and those of Lower Canada, led by Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, formed an alliance to give greater weight to their political demands. They demanded, among other things, the establishment of responsible government.

The establishment of responsible government

The functioning of responsible government, as of 1848

Comparison of the organizational charts of 1840 and 1848

• In 1848, London granted responsible government to the Province of Canada. According to this principle, the Legislative Assembly approved the choice of the members of the Executive Council. These members were, therefore, accountable for their decisions before the Assembly.
• The Baldwin–LaFontaine alliance formed the first responsible government in the Province of Canada and held power until 1851.
• To maintain power, the members of the Executive Council had to present bills that received the support of the majority of the members of the Legislative Assembly. If they lost the support of the Assembly, they had to resign.
• During this period, the Reformers passed laws that were favourable to French Canadians, to the discontent of many English Canadians.

The two-party system

• In the early 1850s, the Reform alliance fell apart. The Reformers split into moderates and radicals. With this division, new political parties emerged.
• From that point on, the politicians of Lower Canada and Upper Canada were divided into two camps: the Conservatives and the Liberals. This was the beginning of the two-party system, a political system in which two main parties succeed one another as the head of government.

Ministerial instability

• In the Province of Canada, in order for a party to form a majority government, it had to win a double majority. That is, it had to have the greatest number of elected members in both Lower Canada and Upper Canada.
• Between 1854 and 1864, the Conservatives formed the majority in Lower Canada, but the minority in Upper Canada, while the opposite occurred for the Liberals. It was therefore impossible for a party to win a double majority. During this 10-year period, more than 10 minority governments succeeded one another, leading to ministerial instability, which made managing the affairs of the colony increasingly difficult.

The Charlottetown and Québec conferences

• The Great Coalition, the government formed in 1864 by George-Étienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald and George Brown, introduced the idea of a confederation of all of the British North American colonies. This confederation would allow the colonies to unite and delegate some of their powers to a central government while maintaining their political authority.
• In September 1864, the leaders of the Great Coalition were invited to the Charlottetown Conference, with the representatives of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. The delegates agreed on the idea of a federal union.
• The following month, they decided to hold another conference in the city of Québec to determine the form of union that would suit all of the colonies. At the end of this conference, the delegates accepted the proposed union.
• Confederation did not enjoy unanimous support, however, and it generated many different reactions in the Maritime colonies, in Newfoundland and in the Province of Canada.

The British North America Act

The British North America Act of 1867

In 1867, London adopted the British North America Act (BNA Act), reorganizing its political structure and its territory.

• Canada became a dominion, or an autonomous member state of the British Commonwealth.
• Its political system was that of a constitutional monarchy, a political system in which the head of state is a king or queen whose powers are limited by a constitution. The British sovereign controlled foreign policy and the army. The Dominion was responsible for making its own laws and for managing its finances and domestic policy.
• Powers (or “jurisdictions”) were distributed between two levels of government: the federal government and the provincial governments.
• John A. Macdonald became the first politician to occupy the position of prime minister of the Dominion of Canada.
• Four provinces formed the Dominion: Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The Province of Canada

Lower Canada and Upper Canada, which had been distinct colonies prior to the Act of Union of 1840, became the two regions of the new colony, the Province of Canada.

The Dominion of Canada, 1867

The British North America Act brought about major territorial changes.

• The Dominion comprised four provinces: Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
• Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, which had refused to join the Canadian federation, remained British colonies. This was also the case for British Columbia, which became a colony of the United Kingdom in 1858.
• The Hudson’s Bay Company held property rights for Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory.

Territorial expansion of the Dominion

In the years following the creation of the Dominion of Canada, the government led by John A. Macdonald pursued a policy of territorial expansion.

• In 1870, the Northwest Territories entered the Canadian federation. The province of Manitoba was created.
• In 1871, British Columbia joined the Dominion. The federal government promised to build a railway line to link it to the other provinces and take over its debts.
• In 1873, Prince Edward Island, also indebted, agreed to join the federation.

Acquiring lands in the West

The first objective of the policy of territorial expansion was to acquire territories situated west of the Dominion’s borders. The government had three reasons for pursuing this objective:

1. to offer new Canadians a place to settle
2. to create a larger economic base as a means of promoting the Dominion’s development
3. to protect the undefended lands of the West from American occupation and annexation

The Métis uprisings

First Nations in the Province of Canada

• In 1842, the governor general, Charles Bagot, launched a commission of inquiry into the administration of Indian Affairs. The recommendations included in its report had a significant impact on Canada’s policy on Indigenous people in the second half of the 19th century.
• In 1851, the Parliament of the Province of Canada adopted a law setting aside 230 000 acres of land, divided into several reserves that were for the exclusive use of First Nations. For the government, the creation of these reserves could encourage Indigenous people to become more sedentary. By abandoning their traditional hunting and fishing activities, Indigenous people would free up immense territories, leaving them open to colonization and to the exploitation of resources.
• In the 19th century, Catholic and Protestant missions took measures to “civilize” Indigenous populations, convert them to Christianity and have them adopt a Western lifestyle.
• In the mid-19th century, residential schools became a formal structure for the assimilation of Indigenous people into Western culture. Residential schools isolated Indigenous children from their families and communities so that they would abandon their language, beliefs and customs.

First Nations in the Dominion of Canada

• As of 1871, the Canadian government signed a series of treaties with First Nations of the West in order to obtain the permanent transfer of their lands. In return, it proposed to create reserves. It also promised to offer certain services and farming equipment to encourage them to adopt a sedentary way of life.
• In 1876, the Dominion of Canada adopted the Indian Act, which was part of a decades-old effort to assimilate Indigenous people. The main objective of this act was to encourage the enfranchisement of First Nations people and, simultaneously, to accord the status of minor and ward of the state to those who refused to enfranchise.

Free trade is an economic system under which customs duties are abolished in order to promote trade with other countries.

The forestry industry

• The lumber industry experienced spectacular growth, due in part to the development of cities in the United States. The Reciprocity Treaty contributed to the prosperity of this industry.
• The pulp and paper sector, which benefited from the discovery of new processes that made it possible to make paper from wood, evolved rapidly in the second half of the 19th century.
• Investors used hydraulic resources in the forestry regions, such as the Outaouais, Mauricie and Saguenay.
• Many logging camps supplied the sawmills located at the mouth of rivers in several regions of Québec.

Agriculture

• In 1854, the seigneurial system was abolished. The censitaires could purchase their lands, which became private property.
• In the second half of the 19th century, agriculturalism grew in popularity. Those who joined the movement promoted traditional values like family, Catholicism and the French language. They sought a return to the land.
• In 1888, Honoré Mercier, premier of Québec, created the Department of Agriculture and Colonization. This department established a program to colonize Québec’s undeveloped regions.
• Close to cities, the mechanization of farms favoured the growth of the dairy industry starting in the 1880s.

The Macdonald government’s National Policy

• From 1873 to 1878, Canada faced a serious economic crisis. The prime minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald, adopted the National Policy to encourage the Dominion’s industrial development. This policy included three components.

• In 1885, construction of the transcontinental railway (the Canadian Pacific) was completed.
• In the years that followed, the government adopted various measures to attract immigrants to the West.
• From 1871 to 1891, the population of the West quadrupled. Most of the colonists were from the eastern region of the Dominion. At the very end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, the West experienced a wave of immigration from Eastern Europe.

The beginnings of unionism

• In 1872, a federal law recognized the legality of union associations and the right to strike. However, the right to strike would not be respected until the 1890s.
• In the 1880s, the Québec government and the federal government recognized the need to protect workers’ health and safety, and to regulate factory work. They adopted various measures to address this need.

The role of women

• At the end of the 19th century in Québec, women could not act without the consent of their father or husband. They started to demand the right to vote that they had lost in 1849.
• The most common jobs for women were: teacher, worker and domestic servant. Many women opted for a religious life.
• In 1893, Lady Aberdeen founded the Montreal Local Council of Women, a reformist organization comprised of women. This association subscribed to social reformism, an ideology that advocated social change in order to address poverty and other consequences of industrial development.
• Women started to speak out in the public sphere. Women’s literature emerged.

Ultramontanism

• Ultramontanism is a political and religious doctrine according to which the Catholic Church exercises control in all spheres, particularly with respect to political power.
• The Church had control over education, among other areas. Following the adoption of the School Act, the denominational school system was established, with separate schools for Francophone Catholics and Anglophone Protestants.

Nationalism of survival

For the proponents of nationalism of survival, only the Church’s protection could safeguard the main characteristics of French Canadian identity, namely:

• the Catholic faith
• French culture and language
• a traditional way of life, rooted in farming and rural life
• a traditional family structure, where the father was considered the authority figure

Anticlericalism and the Institut canadien

• Anticlericalism is a position opposing the influence of the Church in spheres other than religious life.
• The members of the Institut canadien, a forum for intellectual discussion and debate, were advocates of anticlericalism. They sought to make available newspapers and books on various subjects, including some banned by the Vatican. They advocated freedom of thought.

Honoré Mercier’s French Canadian nationalism

• In the second half of the 19th century, part of the population felt that the federal government was not protecting the rights of Francophone Catholic minorities living outside of Québec.
• There was a growing desire among French Canadians to protect the use of the French language, the Catholic faith and the traditional values that defined their identity. Premier Honoré Mercier became the defender of French Canadian nationalism.
• Mercier promoted provincial autonomy, believing strongly that the federal government should be prohibited from intervening in jurisdictions that fell under the responsibility of the provinces. This led him to organize the first interprovincial conference in 1887.
• Following a series of court judgments that limited federal encroachment on provincial jurisdictions, the Canadian federation became a little less centralized.

Industrial capitalism

Development of the rail network

• In order to sustain the development of a domestic market between the British North American colonies in the 19th century, a rail transportation network was established.
• In 1852, the Grand Trunk Railway Company was founded. The construction of a railway line linked several cities in the Province of Canada and two major American ports.
• A rail link between the Maritimes and the Province of Canada became a condition of Nova Scotia’s support for Confederation. In the 1870s, the construction of the Intercolonial completed the Maritime network and linked it to the Grand Trunk network.
• The rail network offered several advantages:
  • rapid access to raw materials
  • the shipping of manufactured products
  • the colonization of new territories
  • the growth of a new industrial sector: the manufacture of railway equipment
• Major improvements were made to existing canals, including the Canal de Lachine. However, the rail network offered one major advantage: it allowed for year-round transportation.
• The rail network also underwent a major expansion to the West as part of the Macdonald government’s National Policy in 1879.

Urbanization